Activity is purposeful human endeavor. In pursuing their goals, people use nature, influence it, and transform both nature and themselves.
Activity is:
- goal-directed — oriented toward a goal;
- instrumental — supported by instruments for achieving the goal;
- situational — carried out within a situation and dependent on it;
- oriented toward a specific object.
Activity is goal-directed — meaning it is aimed at a designated goal. It is expedient — meaning it aligns with the goal in some way. Instruments are means of achieving a goal, whose effectiveness in achieving that goal has been recognized by the person. The norms for using these instruments are culturally established knowledge that is transmitted to others. These range from the simplest tools for physical labor to higher-level means, such as human skills. The means of activity are necessary as sufficient conditions for carrying it out.
Activity is a coordinated structure: the goal must correspond to a specific situation or a particular object, and the means must be purposeful — that is, they must ensure the achievement of the goal.
To define an individual act of activity, it is necessary, at a minimum, to specify its goals, object, and means.
In accordance with the goal, means act upon the object. This simplest structure can be expanded. In place of the object, one can introduce the process of transforming raw material into a specific end product. By applying means (tools, instruments), a person transforms the raw material into an end product that corresponds to the goal. The goal points to the possible product of the act; even before the activity begins, the goal contains an image of the end product. What a person ultimately wants exists "in advance," in an ideal form, as goals. The product is created in the process of transforming the material.
The material of the transformation process can be physical, in which case we speak of a productive (manufacturing) act. The material can be symbolic, in which case we speak of an intellectual act. For example, the transformation of a mathematical formula or an information model of an object.
The goal points to the end product — and thus indirectly to the raw material from which the product is obtained through transformation. The means must ensure the achievement of the goal. The means are linked to the end product, since they must ensure its production from the raw material. The means are connected to the transformation process as a whole — each specific means is used in particular procedures of the process of transforming the raw material.
Activity is coordinated:
- the goal must correspond to a specific situation or a particular object;
- the means must be purposeful — that is, they must ensure the achievement of the goal.